West Lincoln beats East Lincoln, clinches SPC baseball title

LINCOLNTON – When the 2013 Southern Piedmont Conference baseball season began, West Lincoln knew it would have to beat two-time defending champion East Lincoln if it wanted to win the league title.

On Friday night, West Lincoln beat East Lincoln for the third time this season – and it was enough to wrap up the 2013 title and the fifth conference championship in school history.

Right-handers Alec Johnson and Cameron High combined on a three-hitter and Mack George rapped two doubles as the Rebels won 5-2 over the visiting Mustangs.

“They’ve been kind of the benchmark in our league the last couple of years,” West Lincoln coach Allan Chapman said of East Lincoln. “We have a lot of respect for them, so this means a lot.”

The Rebels (19-4, 12-1) wrap up their league schedule Monday at Lake Norman Charter. A victory would give West Lincoln its most conference wins in a season in addition to the school’s fifth 20-win season. The Rebels won 8-4 at East Lincoln on March 26 and 4-1 against the Mustangs on April 5 in the Cleveland County FCA tournament in Shelby in their two previous meetings.

East Lincoln (13-9, 9-4), which gave West Lincoln its lone league losses en route to its unbeaten SPC title run last season, scored twice in the top of the first inning before the Rebels shut out the Mustangs the rest of the way.

“We’ve been through a lot, so we’ve been in every situation,” Chapman said of the comeback.

West Lincoln, which will host a first-round N.C. 2A playoff game on May 10, scored once in the second inning, took the lead with two in the third and tacked on two insurance runs in the sixth.

Cody Dellinger reached on a one-out error in the second, moved to second on Derrick Braun’s single to right and scored on Johnson’s RBI single to left.

In the third, George drove in both runs with a double to right. He scored Chandler Jenkins and High, who rapped back-to-back one-out singles.

In the sixth, Ethan Bumgarner hustled out a one-out double to center and scored on Dalton Towery’s RBI single. Brett Huff, who reached on a walk, scored on a wild pitch later in the inning.

“I think we’ve set our sights on this all year long,” Chapman said of winning the league title. “They’ve believed in each other and came out and competed.

“This was one goal that we wanted. Now we can go after the others.”

Johnson went six-plus innings, yielding two hits, two runs and four walks while striking out three to improve to 7-1. High, 7-1 on the season, picked up his first save by retiring three of four batters, including one by strikeout.

Jenkins, High, Bumgarner and George had two hits apiece for the Rebels.

For East Lincoln, which closes its league schedule at home against Cherryville on Monday night, Addison Parrish drove in one run with a two-out triple and scored the other run on a wild pitch. Darin Salter and Blake Strupp had the Mustangs’ other hits. Danny Sullivan started and took the loss in four innings of six-hit, three-run (two earned) pitching.

After Monday’s regular season finales, each team will play in the conference postseason tournament that begins on Thursday.